Monday, 1 August 2016

Liberals (such as I) and Centrist Conservatives must do more than write off Donald Trump as a laughable aberration.

That scorn and derision comes from the elitist thinking by which Liberals and Centrist Conservatives think that they know best, and that any wise person should share think similarly.

We must take what Trump says with all due seriousness, and rather than mocking him ( and thereby dissing a large segment of the electorate) we should present clear and cogent critical alternatives to his views.

Simply saying that "Trump is wrong" is not an honest or viable way of winning an election. The "Brexit" parallels are striking.

\I offer the views of Glenn Greenwald and Stephen Cohen.

Agree with them or not (that's your choice) do read or listen to what they have to say.

There's another "sad song" which came to mind today. It is "Hard Times Again No More", written by the great American song writer Stephen Foster wrongly accused (in my opinion) of being a racist on account of his song "Swanee River". . I think that he was a romantic, he never visited the South).

Stephen Foster

Here is the text of "Hard Times Again No More"

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears

While we all sup sorrow with the poor

There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;

Oh, hard times come again no more

[Chorus]

'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary

Hard times, hard times come again no more

Many days you have lingered

Around my cabin door

Oh hard times come again no more

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay

There are frail forms fainting at the door

Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say;

Oh, hard times come again no more

[Chorus]

There's a pale sorrowed maiden who toils her life away

With a worn heart whose better days are o'er

Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day

Oh, hard times come again no more

[Chorus]

'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave

'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore

'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave

Oh, hard times come again no more

[Chorus]

Here it is as sung by Thomas Hampson, accompanied by Jay Ungar, Molly Mason and David Alpher.

About Me

I am from a blue collar background in Bristol, England, and was educated in the days of the 11+ system.
I am one of nine children. My eight siblings live in England.
After school I was first a banker; then a seminarian; then an Episcopal Priest.
I trained for ordained ministry at St. John's College, Nottingham, U.K; and the University of Nottingham from which I was graduated with the degree Bachelor in Theology.
I had 30 years of parish ministry in Massachusetts. (Fitchburg, Chicopee, Pittsfield and Cambridge).
Now retired, I live in Sarasota, FL.
My mantra: - "There is no secular world".